The Trial of Gary Graham: 1981

As the trial opened before Judge James R. Travathan on October 30, 1981, prosecutor Johnny Holmes described the arrest of Graham and showed the jury his gun. He did not, however, tell the jury that ballistics tests by Houston police had proved that that gun had not fired the bullets that killed Lambert. Mock, in his opening, did not call attention to that fact or note that neither the gun nor any other physical evidence that could link Graham to the crime had been formally presented. Observers later theorized that Mock was avoiding the fact that Graham had nine other weapons.

The prosecution called several witnesses. Wilma Amos testified that lighting in the parking lot "was good." Daniel Grady, Ron Hubbard, Leodis Wilkerson, and Amos described the shooter they saw as medium height—roughly 5′5″ to 5′9″—but could not identify him as Graham.

Lisa Blackburn, the rape victim who brought about Graham's arrest, testified that he told her, "I have already killed three people and I'm going to kill you," and "I don't have nothing to lose. If I get caught, I burn, and I'm not getting caught." The defense failed to argue that her testimony should be disallowed because no charge of rape had been brought against the defendant.

Another prosecution witness, Richard Carter, Jr., described how Graham, in an earlier robbery, forced him to kneel, put a shotgun barrel in his mouth, and threatened, "I'll kill you. Blowing away another white m----- f----- don't mean nothing to me."

The prosecution introduced Bernadine Skillern. She described how she was sitting in her parked car in the supermarket parking lot at night when she saw a man wearing a white jacket and dark trousers shoot Lambert. She saw the killer, she testified, "full-face" three times, for two to three seconds each, and watched him for a minute or more at distances ranging from 10 to 40 feet. Her further testimony told how she reviewed police photos and picked Graham out of the lineup.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Mock questioned witness Skillern extensively on her angle of sight from her car, on the adequacy of the lighting in the parking lot, and on the length of time she saw the shooter. The light was bright enough and the time was long enough, she insisted, for her to make the positive identification later. The cross-examination testimony ran to 36 pages, yet, said Mock afterward, "I couldn't even get her to flicker."

Mock rested the defense case without calling the defendant or any witnesses. The guilt phase of the trial ended on the day it started. And on the same day, the jury found Graham guilty of capital murder. The sentence was execution.

Demonstrators from the "Campaign to End the Death Penalty" protest the execution of convicted murderer Gray Graham. (Bettmann/Corbis)